Oasis Heating, A/C & Refrigeration Blog : Archive for January, 2017

We hope you’ve been enjoying a pleasant winter here in Northern Virginia. The weather is mild right now—but that still means it’s cold enough outside that you’ll need a home heater for comfort, especially in the evenings.

If your home is like the majority in the area, it uses a gas furnace for a heating system. One of the more common troubles that a gas furnace might run into during the winter is something called short-cycling. Because our technicians often fix this problem, we’d like to share some information about it: what it is, and why it might happen with your gas furnace. If you have a short-cycling heating system and need furnace repair in Springfield, VA or the surrounding areas, we have the 24/7 emergency service to fix it.

The second half of January puts us midway between when the season for turning on heaters starts, and the time when the air conditioners kick in. If you don’t have a maintenance service contract with a trusted HVAC company (take a look at ours) then right now is great time to plan ahead and arrange for it.

If you’re asking this question, it’s almost certainly because you have concerns about the quality of the air in your house. Maybe there’s an increase in illness, or the air feels dustier and dirtier than normal. Or you may have read some of the worrying statistics about air quality in homes—most of which are true.

Whatever the reason, you’re wondering if you should have an air purifier or an air filter installed. Air filters are non-powered systems that use fiber weaves to trap unwanted particles, while air purifiers are electrically-powered devices that use ionization, ultraviolet radiation, or other methods to remove pollutants.

Is this your first winter using a heat pump for comfort? Whether it’s because you had the system installed in the spring to prep for summer, or you’ve moved into a house that already has a heat pump, you’ll probably run into some unusual behavior from it during the winter. Most of the time, there’s nothing wrong with the heat pump—it’s simply that you’re unaccustomed to seeing the way this type of comfort system works in cold weather.

Here are two specific heat pump winter issues that seem like repair problems… but aren’t.